Desktop Support Contract Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £211, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 476 308 323
Rank change year-on-year -168 +15 -30
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 195 257 254
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.79% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.86% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 151 171
10th Percentile £140 £145 £126
25th Percentile £170 £161 £152
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £211 £210 £203
Median % change year-on-year +0.60% +3.70% +1.25%
75th Percentile £240 £248 £235
90th Percentile £280 £278 £269
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £210 £204
% change year-on-year +1.19% +3.07% +1.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 39 26
10th Percentile £16.26 - £17.50
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.13
Median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% +6.33%
75th Percentile £23.50 £31.40 £24.18
90th Percentile £25.11 £33.75 £27.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.33 £25.15 £21.44
% change year-on-year -23.14% +17.32% +22.50%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 49,605 29,863 36,126
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.22% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,859 22,977
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,539 1,568 1,933
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.21 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -1.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Desktop Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 25 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 25 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support within the UK over the 6 months to 25 August 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -160 167 £223 +3.49% 34
UK excluding London -140 123 £213 +1.19% 18
London -68 69 £223 +0.45% 18
North of England -78 33 £235 +20.51% 9
South West -69 25 £210 -6.67% 2
North West -39 23 £235 +11.90% 6
Scotland -5 21 £194 +5.44% 1
South East -79 21 £180 -16.28% 4
East of England -22 10 £173 -17.86%
Yorkshire -42 10 £230 -2.13% 3
Midlands -69 10 £250 +46.20% 2
Work from Home -62 9 £226 -9.50% 4
West Midlands -50 6 £225 +32.35% 1
East Midlands -20 4 £260 +52.05% 1
Northern Ireland -1 3 £175 -15.66% 1
Wales -16 1 - -

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 August 2026, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 142 (72.82%) Windows
2 96 (49.23%) Microsoft
3 86 (44.10%) Microsoft 365
4 78 (40.00%) Active Directory
5 59 (30.26%) ITIL
6 58 (29.74%) Customer Service
7 47 (24.10%) Windows 10
8 46 (23.59%) Security Cleared
9 42 (21.54%) ITSM
10 41 (21.03%) SC Cleared
11 40 (20.51%) Microsoft Intune
12 33 (16.92%) Problem-Solving
13 32 (16.41%) ServiceNow
14 29 (14.87%) SCCM
14 29 (14.87%) SharePoint
15 27 (13.85%) Azure
15 27 (13.85%) Service Management
15 27 (13.85%) VPN
16 26 (13.33%) Service Delivery
17 25 (12.82%) Degree
17 25 (12.82%) SLA
18 23 (11.79%) Asset Management
19 22 (11.28%) Virtual Desktop
20 21 (10.77%) Entra ID
20 21 (10.77%) Mac OS
20 21 (10.77%) Migration
21 18 (9.23%) Apple iOS
22 17 (8.72%) Android
22 17 (8.72%) Citrix
22 17 (8.72%) PowerShell

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 29 (14.87%) SharePoint
2 11 (5.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.51%) Confluence
3 1 (0.51%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.54%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 86 (44.10%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (13.85%) Azure
3 21 (10.77%) Entra ID
4 14 (7.18%) OneDrive
5 6 (3.08%) SaaS
6 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.51%) Google Workspace
7 1 (0.51%) IaaS
7 1 (0.51%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 27 (13.85%) VPN
2 14 (7.18%) DHCP
3 13 (6.67%) DNS
4 12 (6.15%) TCP/IP
5 11 (5.64%) Wireless
6 10 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (4.10%) LAN
8 3 (1.54%) Firewall
8 3 (1.54%) Network Security
9 2 (1.03%) Remote Desktop
9 2 (1.03%) Skype
9 2 (1.03%) Value-Added Service
10 1 (0.51%) Cisco IOS
10 1 (0.51%) NAS
10 1 (0.51%) VLAN
10 1 (0.51%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.51%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.05%) JIRA
General
1 80 (41.03%) Social Skills
2 35 (17.95%) Finance
3 19 (9.74%) Organisational Skills
4 15 (7.69%) Banking
5 12 (6.15%) Investment Banking
6 10 (5.13%) Financial Institution
6 10 (5.13%) Spanish Language
6 10 (5.13%) Telecoms
7 9 (4.62%) Legal
8 8 (4.10%) Analytical Skills
9 5 (2.56%) Front Office
10 4 (2.05%) Law
10 4 (2.05%) Manufacturing
10 4 (2.05%) Public Sector
11 2 (1.03%) Local Government
12 1 (0.51%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.51%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.59%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.51%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 41 (21.03%) Onboarding
2 13 (6.67%) Driving Licence
2 13 (6.67%) Video Conferencing
3 11 (5.64%) Hedge funds
4 10 (5.13%) Smartphone
5 8 (4.10%) iPhone
5 8 (4.10%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.05%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.54%) iPad
7 3 (1.54%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.03%) Augmented Reality
8 2 (1.03%) BYOD
8 2 (1.03%) CMDB
8 2 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.03%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.51%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.51%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.51%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 142 (72.82%) Windows
2 47 (24.10%) Windows 10
3 21 (10.77%) Mac OS
4 18 (9.23%) Apple iOS
5 17 (8.72%) Android
6 5 (2.56%) Windows 7
6 5 (2.56%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.54%) Linux
7 3 (1.54%) Windows XP
8 1 (0.51%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (30.26%) ITIL
2 58 (29.74%) Customer Service
3 42 (21.54%) ITSM
4 33 (16.92%) Problem-Solving
5 27 (13.85%) Service Management
6 26 (13.33%) Service Delivery
7 23 (11.79%) Asset Management
8 21 (10.77%) Migration
9 13 (6.67%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.15%) Break/Fix
11 11 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (5.64%) Inventory Management
12 10 (5.13%) Logistics
12 10 (5.13%) Root Cause Analysis
13 9 (4.62%) Mobile Device Management
13 9 (4.62%) Problem Management
13 9 (4.62%) User Experience
14 7 (3.59%) Change Management
14 7 (3.59%) Data Protection
15 5 (2.56%) Software Deployment
Programming Languages
1 17 (8.72%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.54%) Python
2 3 (1.54%) SQL
2 3 (1.54%) VBScript
3 1 (0.51%) Bash
Qualifications
1 46 (23.59%) Security Cleared
2 41 (21.03%) SC Cleared
3 25 (12.82%) Degree
4 13 (6.67%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.05%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.05%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (2.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.54%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.54%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.51%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.51%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (12.82%) SLA
System Software
1 78 (40.00%) Active Directory
2 22 (11.28%) Virtual Desktop
3 8 (4.10%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.54%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.03%) Firmware
6 1 (0.51%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.51%) zsh
Systems Management
1 40 (20.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (14.87%) SCCM
3 4 (2.05%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.51%) WSUS
Vendors
1 96 (49.23%) Microsoft
2 32 (16.41%) ServiceNow
3 17 (8.72%) Citrix
4 14 (7.18%) Apple
5 11 (5.64%) McAfee
6 8 (4.10%) Starlink
6 8 (4.10%) VMware
7 6 (3.08%) HP
8 4 (2.05%) Adobe
9 3 (1.54%) BeyondTrust
9 3 (1.54%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.54%) Cisco
9 3 (1.54%) Dell
9 3 (1.54%) Google
9 3 (1.54%) Remedy
9 3 (1.54%) Samsung
9 3 (1.54%) Tanium
10 2 (1.03%) Autodesk
10 2 (1.03%) Meraki
10 2 (1.03%) Symantec